June 19, 2009

2009 Indiana State Legislation - One Foreclosure Bill

The June edition of Hoosier Banker, published by the Indiana Bankers Association, has a really good article entitled "Wrap-up of 2009 Legislative Session" written by Amber Van Til, VP-Governmental Relations, and Dax Denton, AVP-Governmental Relations. In the article, they address the Indiana General Assembly's 2009 banking-related bills, and Indiana's passage of three bills dealing with depositories. Despite all the recent negative publicity involving lenders and several legislators' efforts to pass multiple mortgage and foreclosure-related bills in 2009 (click for example), only one bill passed that directly affects mortgage foreclosures, Senate Bill 492: click here for a digest of the bill and click here for a .pdf of the enacted statutory changes.

SB 492 will be effective June 30, 2009. The legislation is not unlike the mediation-related procedural rules recently adopted by the Marion County (Indianapolis) court system, about which I wrote on March 15, 2009. SB 492 creates the opportunity for non-binding settlement conferences between lenders and borrowers, and various notices must be sent and filed before the lender can proceed with the foreclosure suit. Significant to the primary readers of this site, lenders/plaintiffs are not required to send the notices mandated by the bill if "the loan is secured by a dwelling that is not the debtor's primary residence...." In other words, like the Marion County scheme, commercial foreclosures are excluded from the new statute.

Candidly, I'm not entirely clear at this time the full extent of the similarities and differences between the new Marion County procedural rules and the state-wide legislation. For now, lawyers and parties involved in Marion County residential foreclosures, filed after June 30th, should study and remain mindful of the new rules/laws from both governing bodies. If anyone reading this can shed light on the matter for us, please comment here or email me, thanks.

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2009 Indiana State Legislation - One Foreclosure Bill

The June edition of Hoosier Banker, published by the Indiana Bankers Association, has a really good article entitled "Wrap-up of 2009 Legislative Session" written by Amber Van Til, VP-Governmental Relations, and Dax Denton, AVP-Governmental Relations. In the article, they address the Indiana General Assembly's 2009 banking-related bills, and Indiana's passage of three bills dealing with depositories. Despite all the recent negative publicity involving lenders and several legislators' efforts to pass multiple mortgage and foreclosure-related bills in 2009 (click for example), only one bill passed that directly affects mortgage foreclosures, Senate Bill 492: click here for a digest of the bill and click here for a .pdf of the enacted statutory changes.

SB 492 will be effective June 30, 2009. The legislation is not unlike the mediation-related procedural rules recently adopted by the Marion County (Indianapolis) court system, about which I wrote on March 15, 2009. SB 492 creates the opportunity for non-binding settlement conferences between lenders and borrowers, and various notices must be sent and filed before the lender can proceed with the foreclosure suit. Significant to the primary readers of this site, lenders/plaintiffs are not required to send the notices mandated by the bill if "the loan is secured by a dwelling that is not the debtor's primary residence...." In other words, like the Marion County scheme, commercial foreclosures are excluded from the new statute.

Candidly, I'm not entirely clear at this time the full extent of the similarities and differences between the new Marion County procedural rules and the state-wide legislation. For now, lawyers and parties involved in Marion County residential foreclosures, filed after June 30th, should study and remain mindful of the new rules/laws from both governing bodies. If anyone reading this can shed light on the matter for us, please comment here or email me, thanks.